Where does GCI get their theology from?

If you spend time within GCI you will hear people from high up in GCI leadership quote a lot of authors and scholars, many of whom you may not have heard of before. Mostly these quotes are not properly referenced, just stating the author who said something, omitting the page number, and the name of the book / work the quote appeared in. You likely may not have the time to research into these people, read these books, nor even find the quotes.

Over time as a regular member, I noticed that GCI regularly quotes, and bases their theology off of only a select handful of scholars:

So, where do we start with good theology? Drawing on Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Karl Barth and Tom and James Torrance, good theology begins with the question, “Who is God?”
— ACCM Welcome Note - John McLean - Australian National Director

Grace Communion International believes that theology should be rooted in the Bible, especially the New Testament. We see a reliable theology articulated by Irenaeus, Athanasius, Gregory Nazianzus, and more recently, Karl Barth, Thomas F. Torrance, and many others. This theology is often referred to as Trinitarian Theology due to its emphasis on the relational nature of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
— About Us - Grace Communion International¹

Let’s have a look at the more recent scholars that GCI uses.

Karl Barth

Karl Barth, a Swiss theologian born in 1886, is one of the biggest / most prominent theologians that GCI uses. During the time of Nazi Germany, he opposed the liberalism of the Protestant church at that time, and the German church’s involvement with the Nazis. His theology however is rather controversial today. We can see elements of his theology within GCI.

Unknowability of God & Dialectical theology

Karl Barth taught that God was unknowable, completely other. He thought that “we cannot speak of God with our merely human capacities. God’s being eludes human concept and speech, and theology must therefore be ‘dialectical’ in constantly negating what it affirms.”
— The History of Christianity by Jonathan Hill p.425

Due to this, Barth’s views can be very unclear and uncertain; His theology can be hard to understand, and at times blatantly contradictory.

Barth’s idea that God was unknowable is taught by GCI:

We are limited by our words, concepts, intelligence and so on. We are trying to grasp the ungraspable. There is always the element of mystery as we try to understand God.
— Jesus and the Gospels - ACCM Course pg 2

[Reflect on the following statements]

Human beings are finite, limited. God is infinite, eternal, unlimited.

How can we begin to contemplate, let alone know, God?

What are some of the ways we can learn about God?

— Jesus and the Gospels - ACCM Course pg 4

Tendency towards Universalism.

Karl Barth taught that the entire world was included in Christ’s work on the cross, leading some to accuse him of teaching Universalism. He said this to one of his friends: “I don’t teach Universalism, but I don’t not teach it either” This is extremely similar to GCI’s current stance on Universalism.

Barthian election

Within most Christian circles, the term ‘election’ and ‘predestination’ refers to the Calvinistic idea that God has chosen some people before the creation of the world to be saved. And, potentially, also chosen all other people to be condemned, something called double-predestination.

Karl Barth taught a special version of election - where instead of God electing certain people for salvation, God chose Jesus Christ as God’s elect to save the world. This allows Barth to affirm election while being open for Universalism.

GCI explicitly teaches Barth’s version of election in this article, and the belief can also be demonstrated elsewhere - not just in a specific article about election:

In Jesus Christ, who is God’s elect for our sakes, all humanity is elect in him as the new Adam.
— Do we teach Universalism? - Speaking of Life - Joseph Tkach²

Bonhoeffer

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German pastor and theologian, who was born in 1906, living around the same time as Karl Barth. He also opposed the liberalism of the Protestant church at the time, and the German church’s involvement with the Nazis. So he did the same good things that Barth did.

He was friends with Karl Barth, and it appears that his theology might be similar to Karl Barth. This however isn’t certain. Karl Barth focused on theology a lot more than Bonhoeffer, who focused quite a lot on how Christians should act and live. Hence Bonhoeffers beliefs aren’t very clear.³

Torrance Brothers & Gary Deddo

Thomas, and James Torrance were both students of Karl Barth, who mentored them as theologians. GCI explicitly agrees with the theology of the Torrance brothers, and within leadership they are spoken of quite a lot.

Thomas Torrance translated all of Karl Barth’s works into English from German.
James Torrance studied under Karl Barth, and was the professor of Systematic Theology at the University of Aberdeen.

GCI’s own theologian Gary Deddo, is responsible for defining a large amount of GCI’s theological views. Gary Deddo studied a PhD at the University of Aberdeen, and James Torrance was his professor. Gary Deddo is the president of Grace Communion Seminary, and so is responsible for teaching the trained GCI pastors. ⁴

Conclusion

Essentially, all of this is to say that GCI’s theology comes from Karl Barth. Karl Barth taught James Torrance, who taught Gary Deddo, who is GCI’s main theologian and establishes a large amount of GCI’s theology. Essentially all of GCI’s beliefs come in some way or another from Karl Barth.

I think it is quite alarming to have all of your theology come from a single person. In the days of WCG, all of their theology came from Herbert W. Armstrong. This is essentially also what is happening in GCI today - all of the theology comes from Karl Barth (although removed by a couple of generations).

Sources

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Barth#Theology for an overview of Karl Barth’s theology